Internship has provided me with a lot of experience about the working world. Everyone at Ivey Ranch is very professional and provided me with a lot of insight about having a career and how to enjoy what you do. Through my projects I've learned that doing something with computers and technology is something I would like to do in a career. I think this internship has prepared me for working because now I have a lot of experience in time management, having a project to complete, and independence, which are also big concepts at school. I have noticed that all of the employees work really well together and I think that is a very important skill for the workplace.
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For my internship I did two projects. The first was creating an online store for Ivey Ranch, and the second was helping to put together a book on their sensory trail. The sensory trail is a trail with different sensory activities that can help people with disabilities. Some of the activities include ring toss, sensory buckets (buckets filled with different textures), and things like basketball and football. The online store will be up pretty soon, and I'll update this post when it is. I'll put some photos for now. This project was really important to Ivey Ranch. They have a physical store that provides them with a lot of extra money that is put back 100% into their programs and services. The problem is, the store is only open 3-4 days out of the year when there are big open public days. Putting the store online will help to provide them with a more constant flow of money to help improve the park.
My second project was to help the park create a book on their sensory trail. This was an ongoing project that the park has been wanting to do for a while. It outlines the purpose of each station, how to use it, how it benefits people, and the materials, cost, and how to build it. The book will eventually be distributed to other therapy ranches around the country so they can apply it and create their own sensory trails. How did you make a meaningful contribution to your workplace?I feel that I made a really meaningful contribution to my workplace. For my first project (the website), I provided the ranch with a new source of revenue that can be used to help better their programs. This can ensure that the people who come to the ranch for horse therapy services have the best experience that they can. For my second project (the sensory book), I feel like my impact on my specific workplace is not as big as my indirect impact around the country. The ranch I'm working at already has a functioning sensory trail, but the book I'm helping to make will be distributed to horse ranches around the country so that other people can have the same experience as people do here. How was your work as an intern meaningful to your education?My work as an intern has really become meaningful to my education. Before starting internship, I thought I would just be going and working on a project for a few hours. Once I got into internship and became acclimated at my workplace, it really opened up to me that internship is a very good opportunity to learn what I want to do during and after college. It provided me with a glimpse of what can be expected if I decide to pursue another internship on my own. How might internship influence the direction of your life?I used to think that I would be really good at office jobs, but over the course of my internship the office job became somewhat boring and I had to come up with things to work on myself. However, I think this is somewhat good, because I have a lot of time to go back and change or revise things that I may not have done my best on the first time around. How did your view of life beyond high school change or develop during your time as an intern?One thing that was really new to me during internship is realizing how active the world is while we are in school all day. Just watching outside the window of my internship I can see people going in and out of the mission, people going in and out of the nearby shopping centre, and people coming to the ranch for horse therapy and horse lessons. I think I could get used to a flexible schedule, unlike school, where I am somewhat free to do what I want and need to do while being able to work at the same time. I also gained a new skill of when to leave the office, to try to avoid the traffic of nearby El Camino high school getting out. What new appreciations did you develop while working as an intern? Why? Although it is not really part of my internship, I developed a new appreciation for the people who run the child care centre downstairs in the office house. Since Ivey Ranch has a lot of people and kids with disabilities in their programs, they have a child care/after school care centre that specializes in kids with special needs. Since I am in the office in the morning until around when the kids start arriving, I've been able to see the preparation and work that goes into providing the kids with a good experience. Kids start arriving around 1:00-2:00, but the employees always arrive a few hours early to prepare meals, snacks, and activities for the kids. It really made me appreciate how much the people working with the kids cared about their job and how much they enjoyed it.
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